It seems like Google is always changing things, but generally these changes are behind the scene changes in the algorithm that are generally too obscure and boring to people who are not search engine optimization specialists.  This time, these two new Google changes take place right in your face and they could affect how successful your website is when compared with your competitor’s website.

Sitelinks

The first change is a change to Google sitelinks.  When a website becomes popular enough Google adds additional links to your website below your website’s main listing.  This is supposed to help users more easily navigate your website by quickly locating the information on your website that they are looking for.  For instance, a search of a local museum may produce sitelinks that point users to hours they are open or contact and tour information as these are destinations that searches generally want to find quickly.

Google has now increased the number of sitelinks a website can have from 8 to 12 and also added and additional one line text snippet description of that page.  How can this affect your and your competitor rankings?  Well the new sitelinks now dominate the search results which is good for you should you rank at number one for the queried key term, but very bad for you if you rank number 2 or below.

The screenshot to the right (click to expand) shows the new expanded sitelinks as indicated by the red arrow.  The Google Place’s result for that specific company appears directly below the sitelinks as indicated by the blue arrow.  All of this pushes down all other rankings below the page fold.  As you can see indicated by the green arrow Yelp, the second place result it shoved way down to the bottom and this example only contains 6 sitelinks when the maximum amount available are 12.  When you think about below the fold results only receiving 10% of search result clicks, this is a major shift in how search results deliver traffic.

Google Related

Google is offering up a new extension for Internet Explorer & Chrome called Google Related.  This extension adds a bar to the bottom of your browser which should deliver additional relevant information to the web page you are currently on.  So the website for your local city may also include a map in the related bar, weekly weather forecast and cities nearby that you may be interested in travelling to.  Neat!

The thing is, Google does not distinguish between an information only website and a commercial website.  In the example website below I am at a local restaurant and when I hover over the additional data in the Google Related toolbar I can see a map to the location (purple arrow).  The next column lists reviews of the establishment taken from Google Places and links to more reviews around the web (green arrow).

In the last column of the Google Related bar, the column that commercial websites will take issue with, is a listing of “Related Places”.  That means when I simply hover my mouse that column I am exposed to local competitors who in this result all have a higher review rating than that of the restaurant whose website I am currently on (red arrow).  Say this restaurant paid a monthly retainer for SEO work or spent money advertising through PPC solutions.  That is an expense that can ultimately end up driving visitors with Google Related barinstalled in their browser to their local competitor’s Google Places page.  Not cool Google.

ColorTyme, a leading rent-to-own franchise company, has chosen ElementsLocal™ to optimize their web presence for driving business to their nearly 200 local franchise stores.

Having just completed a major upgrade of their franchisee store websites, ColorTyme is looking to ElementsLocal™ to now equip the new web sites with world-class Search Engine Optimization (SEO), with an emphasis on enhancing localized results.

“We’re pleased that ColorTyme has chosen us to leverage our expertise in SEO, and to take them to the next level by improving the customer experience on the web site, and improve their overall search engine optimization strategy,” says Jeremy LaDuque, President & CEO of ElementsLocal™.

One key aspect of the ElementsLocal™ strategy is to leverage the trust customers have in the national ColorTyme brand. “That’s really the winning combination,” LaDuque explains, “to strike the best possible balance between national brand awareness and local presence.”

Amy Woods, ColorTyme’s Director of Marketing, says she recognized a parallel between ColorTyme’s focus on supporting locally owned businesses and ElementsLocal’s expertise in optimizing web sites to deliver results to local franchise stores. Woods added, “We believe that people like to shop where they live, where they’ll be buying from locally owned businesses that share their values. Every ColorTyme franchise is an independently owned business, and we are all about driving customers to the local stores. We are happy to have found such a well-matched partner in ElementsLocal.”

About ElementsLocal™

ElementsLocal™ provides online marketing solutions to franchise companies looking to leverage local franchise websites, email campaigns and social media marketing.  The ElementsLocal™ platform can be seen at www.elementslocal.com which includes a virtual tour of their franchise solution software. Based in San Luis Obispo, CA, and founded in 1999, clients include Glass Doctor, Sport Clips, MAACO, Jiffy Lube, Curves, Home Helpers,  and Floor Coverings International.

ElementsLocal, a leader in local online marketing for franchise organizations, is proud to announce that it has been chosen by MAACO Collision Repair And Auto Painting as the agency partner to redesign their national and local online presence as well as provide local online marketing for all MAACO locations.

The announcement from MAACO’s corporate offices in King of Prussia, PA comes after a nearly five year relationship with ElementsLocal to provide other marketing solutions including localized, content managed, websites for franchisees.

Warren Stoll, the Director of Marketing for MAACO commented that, “[he’s] excited about some of the new enhancements ElementsLocal will provide. Adding things like social media and making the website mobile ready are critical in today’s world.”

“With this new initiative MAACO has entrusted ELEMENTS to provide our online marketing services to drive more leads to their nearly 500 franchisees nationwide,” says Jeremy LaDuque, President & CEO of ElementsLocal. LaDuque continues, “recent efforts with MAACO have been very positive, with increases upwards of 300% to their websites and search rankings. This effort will build upon those successes to ultimately drive more business to the local Franchisees.”

Additionally, the industry acclaimed ElementsLocal™ Content Management Software (CMS) will be leveraged for local content contribution, lead management and social media marketing. The result will be a new modern design, updated functionality and an extension of the company’s online brand presence which will result in increased leads at both the local and national level.

Paul Segreto President & CEO of franchisEssentials teams with Jeremy LaDuque CEO of ELEMENTS Inc. to discuss how businesses and specifically franchise companies can use the free tools that Google offers to improve their online marketing efforts.

10 Things Franchises Can Do to More Effectively Leverage Google Tools
Tuesday June 21st, 2011 at 9:00 AM PST

Click Here to Sign Up Now

This webinar will cover Google’s tools for better productivity, improved local search results, mobile tools, analytics products and more.  This webinar will also discuss Google’s new ‘+1′ button which is brand new and a hot topic in SEO.

Sign-up now because there is limited seating and spots are filling up quickly.  For more information on this free webinar, please visit our webinar information page.

One interesting report to look at is the difference between what matters to SEO today vs 2009: